TV Review: Designated Survivor 1×05 “The Mission”

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Welcome back to my weekly coverage of Designated Survivor. Be sure to check out previous articles and reviews here.

After a two week break, Designated Survivor returned giving us the action Tom Kirkman needed to green-light in order to keep some favor with Congresswoman Hookstraten and the American people. He was hesitant as we have come to expect and in the past I have praised the character’s willingness to wait and think things through, however in this instance it came across as inconvenient and repetitive in its storytelling message. Ultimately, the hesitancy on Kirkman to take any risk cost him as he lost his first chance at taking out Majid Nassar and the loss of a life in his second chance.

About halfway through the episode, I have to admit that I found myself a little bit bored with this main plot. The introduction of the three Navy SEAL soldiers just spelled a death from the get go. It was an overbearingly cliched moment, and the men and women of the Armed Forces deserve a better representation. That said, it was a good moment when the team did announce victory, it was a victory the Kirkman administration has been needing since the beginning.

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR – “The Mission” – (ABC/Ben Mark Holzberg)

The better stories this week were in the A and B subplots. Hannah Watts continued her conspiracy theory investigation into the movements of Peter MacLeish on the night of the bombing. This took a lot of air time this week and I’m happy for the diversion. Maggie Q has been in need of something else to do then get stalled at every turn. This week was her moment to shine and she took it and ran while discovering some mysterious renovations taking place at the Capitol building for a room that is designated as a hideaway office. Well the renovations had turned it into a bomb shelter. Peter MacLeish is apart of this attack in some way and it is hard to understand for which motivations after he declined to accept the Speaker of the House position for President Kirkman. I’m really hoping that this show will learn the lessons of Agents of SHIELD by continuing to push Hannah Wells’ story forward rather than delaying and stretching it out over the coming weeks. Here is me crossing my fingers.

The B subplot had Aaron digging into the Kirkman’s past and asking Emily about Jeffery Myers. Emily brought this to the First Lady and well it turns out Jeffery Myers is not just a throwaway name. Alex Kirkman called Aaron into see her to talk about it and admitted to Myers being Leo’s biological father. The line was said that Leo doesn’t know the truth, but there was no mention as to whether the President does or not. It would seem like he already does, but this truth could cause problems in the future.

Episode Rating: 7.5/10

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Grant is an aspiring entertainment journalist, internet personality, and novelist hailing from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. While he completes his degree to accomplish those dreams, you can find him singing Karaoke with friends or tucked away in a corner writing his next masterpiece. You can contact him on Twitter (@grantjonsson) or by email at: grant@theyoungfolks.com